Welcome to the Jungle
by Panthiera
Summary: It wasn't being in Las Noches that Orihime feared most, but Grimmjow's personal territory of darkness. GrimmHime. Las Noches arc.
1. Chapter 1

First attempt at this pairing! Just testing the waters for the time being, let me know what you think!

Disclaimer- Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite. I did not create it, however this story is mine.

* * *

**Welcome to the Jungle**

"There's nothing left for you there. You're one of us now."

The sexta espada ran a rough hand through his hair, with unrivalled nonchalance; the flippant action causing Inoue to feel more fear than if he had grabbed her by the neck and smashed her against the wall. Because for if he had done the latter, she could have at least deduced that his words were a meaningless product down to blind brutishness. Also the physical pain would have simply pushed the thoughts out of her head, if she was lucky she might have even fallen unconscious, distant from reality for at least a while. But the way Grimmjow Jaegerjack was perusing her chamber, all the while keeping silent, with the only words from him being ones written on the curves of his menacing expression, was making Inoue sink deeper and deeper into the hell that was Las Noches.

"You-you're wrong... I will never be on your side." The quiet sound of her voice was nothing more than a mouse squeak, but that didn't stop Grimmjow from hearing it within the echoes of the room. He laughed, or more precisely, scoffed, at her feeble attempt at showing resolve.

"I never said you had a choice in the matter, woman." he said, sauntering up closer to her. "Besides, you might like it here, things have gotten -interesting- lately." he smirked, obnoxiously close to her face.

Inoue knew exactly what he was talking about. No doubt what he meant by 'interesting' had something to do with the amount of attention she had been receiving, from the male and female arrancar alike. Some wanted to maul her to pieces, others wanted to do much, much worse. Whatever it was, not one of them had good intentions, and this scared her to the core. She trembled on the spot, clinging on to the place in her head where she still had hope that Kurosaki-kun would come to rescue her. But in the immediate surrounding, she wished for nothing more than for Grimmjow to move away from her, for there was something horrifying about him, brutish to the extent of murderous, carnivorous. Even when he was calm there was something dangerously electric about his demeanour. It was something she had never seen before, and had neither the courage nor desire to tolerate.

She turned away from him, rejecting to acknowledge his presence as best as she could. He probably wanted to hurt her, just like the rest of him, but it disgusted her to know that it was only due to Aizen's word that they were unable to do anything to her. It was the lesser of two evils, but two wrongs never made a right in the first place.

Grimmjow outlined the frailty of her face with his eyes, which were beyond effortlessly piercing. He put his hands in his pocket. "So, are you coming, or do I have to make you?"

Aizen had issued orders for Inoue to dine with the arrancar in charge of her that day, instead of the custom of him bringing her food. It made no difference to her whether she was alone or not, though, because she wasn't going to eat. She'd been fasting for two days already, and was still going strong. There was no way that she was going to accept the food they gave her, and would wait until she was near death in order for her to do anything about it. That was her plan. It outbalanced the uncertainty she harboured on how long she'd be kept in the prison.

In any case, this new regime was most probably a ploy to get her to eat. Maybe they wanted to intimidate her into it or something, as Ulquiorra alone had been unable to convince her to do it. But Inoue was adamant that any plot of theirs was not going to work on her.

Ignoring Grimmjow still, she turned towards the door and made for it hastily, so that she wouldn't have to bear the weight of his presence any longer. She waited meekly by the entrance of the room for him to lead her wherever it was they were heading.

He grinned to himself, smug at the effect he'd had on her. She was just a little lamb, and it was satisfying to have them obey him like that. He walked past her through the door and down the corridor, glancing over his shoulder every now and again to make sure she was still there, which, of course, she was, albeit with her gaze set upon the ground and all he could see of her being the top of her orange head.

"Schiffer's room. Don't have too much fun now." he exclaimed, with an unfazed sarcasm in his voice, before setting a reluctant Orihime outside the designated chamber, and pivoting on himself into the opposite direction.


	2. Chapter 2

First update! Thanks so much for your reviews and feedback, they're really appreciated. Don't be scared to say that I suck at writing, because I know I do, but when you do, all I ask is that you're helpful about it please (as well as coherent)? A simple 'This story is good but boring' doesn't really give me any leeway for improvement, and all I really want to do is get better at writing. This is by no means a personal attack, I'm just giving my views on the matter!

On another note, I'm back to school now therefore more busy but I'm gonna try updating this thing at least once a week. Unlucky-amulet, in reply to your review- I know what you mean, food just somehow seems compelling and tastes much better (or sheer creepy) with Ulquiorra sitting there watching you... I also speak from genuine experience.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach, this is merely fanfiction, nowhere near as great as the real thing =]

* * *

**Welcome to the Jungle**

Orihime sat staring at the plate of green mush at the bottom of her feet, having kicked it there just seconds earlier.

"You will eat, Orihime-chan."

'Why is Ulquiorra-san calling me that?' thought Orihime to herself, but then the truth came to her. He was trying to sweeten her up, to get her to eat, so that she could carry on healing the evil and injure the good.

Her mind cast back to her beloved Kurosaki-kun. Orihime wondered what he was doing at that precise moment, and suddenly felt the most painful pang of longing she'd had since she arrived at Los Noches three weeks ago, if the place even had a sense of time, that was. She imagined going home to her friends- to Tatsuki, Sado, Uryuu Ishida- even Keigo the least subtle of all perverts. What she'd give to be able to talk to Rukia, to see Ichigo just one more time...

"With all due respect, Ulquiorra-san, I am not hungry." Orihime started.

"You haven't eaten in three days, woman. By my estimation you are more than hungry."

She looked at him; one of the few times they ever made proper eye contact. He looked quietly livid, but Inoue knew he could do nothing about it, none of them were allowed to touch her.

"Then you are wrong." she asserted, trembling a little inside because of the way his eyes resembled a snake's. She surmised that his tongue doubtlessly was forked too; his whole being reminded her of something you found in Hell-no, worse- Los Noches.

"Oh?" he said, monotonously yet with a hint of menace in his voice, "Orihime," he continued, more seriously and minus the 'chan' this time. "What if I were to tell you a secret- a secret about the room we are sitting in, also known as my bedchambers?"

Orihime didn't like the sound of this, and the pending sense of darkness that was suddenly cast over the situation made her tremble outwardly this time. She tried to stop her shaking hands by hiding them in the space where her legs sat upon the chair, but unfortunately her face still conveyed feelings of fear.

"Then I will listen." she said defiantly, as to not give her emotions away. She looked up at him again, to the same mournful expression.

"Aizen-sama has given strict instructions not to hurt you, and I assume you know this already. Yet--" he started, purposefully stalling the end of his sentence. "what you don't know, is that within private bedchambers, our reitsu..."

She waited for his twisted punchline. The words 'private bedchambers' had been somewhat of an attack, she couldn't explain why, but Orihime had a feeling she was going to get hurt. And then Ulquiorra gave her the terrible news.

"Our reiatsu are masked." He smirked. "Do you know what that means, Orihime-chan?" He was obviously mocking her this time, yet his face remained unreadable, just like always.

"It means you're not as safe as you think. However--" he took one step towards the table she was sitting at. "I refuse to adopt behaviours akin to Jeagerjaques or Jiruga."

Confusion masked Inoue's face, feeling a distant sense of relief that she at least wasn't going to be violated today, but still, the shaking feeling of darkness still surrounded her.

"W-what are you going to do to me?" she stuttered.

"I suggest you don't ask that question unless you are willing to experience the very feeling that is eating up your insides right this moment. I am giving you one last chance, Orihime. Eat."

She seriously pondered it for a minute. After all, he had been right, she was devastatingly hungry for that matter. A whole three days without food was enough to make anyone starve, especially as she'd been so spoiled up to the time of her abduction regarding food. She really wanted to eat, so that she could get over this frightening scenario and go back to her room in solitude.

But no. She valued her principles much more than her desire to eat. This wasn't about satiating her desire, this wasn't superficial, or about weight loss, or about how food tasted in Los Noches. This was about protest. It was about her making a stand against espada, against Aizen. He had no right to take her, to dress her in these clothes, to force her to heal the sexta espada's arm. In the midst of all that, eating was the one remaining thing Orihime had control of, there was no way they were going to take that away from her as well. She would die before she'd become a slave to them in her mind. Her hunger was their poison, their victory, and she wouldn't give in to it. Whatever Ulquiorra had in store for her was nowhere as strong as her resolve.

"I'm not hungry."

And that was her finishing sentence. To this the cuarta espada said nothing for a while, and kept his focus on Orihime. Without warning, the next thing he did was take out his left eye, in an effortless manner. You would almost think it was an everyday occurrence, if not for the fact that it was completely sinister.

"That's a shame." he said calmly, before taking the eye and stabbing it into Orihime's chest, from which a tiny amount of reiatsu was punctured. Orihime gasped, pained at the attack but unable to make any sound. Suddenly, as if someone had thrown a heavy black sheet over her, everything became dark.

Yet, she wasn't unconscious or anything. She felt no pain, but she couldn't see or hear anything either. She couldn't even see herself. She was just a pair of eyes gleaming into the abyss.

"Ulquiorra-san?" she asked feebly, but found that her voice had no function either. She realised that none of her senses were with her. Where exactly was she?

But strangely, she felt a trickle of liquid down the side of her head. It was a cold and sticky substance. It was blood.

How could she feel? Orihime thought that she'd been deprived of her senses.

What she saw next shocked her to the bone. She could see now- she saw too much. She could also hear, but the sound was deafening. The taste in her mouth was acidic and the smell coming from the corpse next to her was so bad that it was unfathomable.

"Kuro- Kurosaki-kun!" she screamed, her own voice tearing up her eardrums like an explosion. It was all she could hear as she cradled the dead body of her former friend in her blood-stained arms. "Kurosaki-kun... how? Ichigo, wake up! You're not dead, you're not dead!" she wailed, continuing to be deafened by what seemed to sound like a distortion of her own voice. "Ichigo, wake up! Please wake up, I'm begging you!

If she thought she wasn't prepared for that, then the next thing she would see was far too much for her to handle. A few feet away, she could see the approaching footsteps of an espada- a female espada.

It was none other than her best friend Tatsuki. Orihime clutched on to Ichigo to try and block out the vision, but found he was gone from her arms; he'd completely disappeared. She scrambled to her feet in an attempt to find him among the darkness but before she knew her balance was thrown off by a pert kick to the back by none other than the present espada.

"Arisawa Tatsuki, segunda espada." she exclaimed in a calm voice similar to the cuarta. "The sooner this is over with, the better."

Orihime dodged as she took a swing with her zanpakto, screaming all the while, on the verge of passing out. The internal emotions the young auburn haired girl was undergoing was beyond traumatic by this point.

"What is the meaning of this? Why did you betray us, Tatsuki-chan? I thought you were my friend! We all thought you were our friend! No... Tatsuki, this isn't real!"

Another sword swing threw Orihime some ten feet away, blood continuing to slide down the side of her face. But like Ichigo, Tatsuki was now nowhere to be seen, nor heard. Orihime could not see her body once more. Instead, she felt a gust of wind coming from some direction behind her. She turned around to see Nnoitra, the quinta espada with a small person in his grasp. It was Kuchiki Rukia, and she had been gagged and bound by her wrists, which had blood emanating from them.

"What's going on?" Orihime managed to murmur, but her voice was silent. She knew that her voice existed, but somehow couldn't hear it. Her breathing quickened as she saw what was unfolding in front of her face. Nnoitra was quickly trying to undress Rukia. He had managed to pull her hakama off, and was proceeding with some difficulty on her inner robes.

Orihime panicked and screamed. She tried running over to Rukia but she had no legs, she tried swatting Nnoitra away but she had no arms. She couldn't even blink. The scene that was occuring before her was beyond her control.

Everything- everything was beyond her control. Ichigo was dead, Tatsuki had joined the espada, and Rukia was coming close to being brutally violated by that disgusting arrancar, and she couldn't even look away.

Slowly, slowly, Inoue felt the darkness dawning in on her. There was nothing now. Her breath become hot and heavy, and she found that her body on return was heaving up and down in desperate need of air. She raised a hand to her forehead, wiping off the sweat. At least there was nothing to look at now, she just stared at her hands, catching her breath.

But there was something odd about the way her hands were formed. Instead of her usual long delicate fingers, the skin on these hands were rough and pale. They were not dainty or feminine, they were more like talons, ready to cach their prey. Something else was peculiar, too. She had the number '1' tattooed on her right palm. Instinctively, she reached for her hairclips, her only defense within this world. Why hadn't she thought of it before? Of course, she could just attempt to reject these events, to reject the scenes playing out in front of her.

But a revelation awaited her, the hairclips did nothing when she shouted out 'Santen Kesshun'. The protective barrier that she awaited did not come. Instead, an oval mirror shaped like what Santen Kesshun would have looked like materialised in front of her. What she saw in the mirror horrified her.

Her hairclips were now the remains of a broken hollow mask. They were shaped in the same way as before, but just white and cracked. She screeched at herself in the mirror, attempting to push it away, but no matter how hard she shoved it kept returning the force and edging closer to her face, so that eventually all she could see was her frantic self screaming and struggling against the mystical object.

"I'm not a traitor, I'm not a traitor! I will never join the espada!" she yelled, giving the mirror one last jab so powerful that it broke, the shards landing on the body of the person she had desperately searched for before. She got up and ran over to him, relieved to see Ichigo's body, albeit unconscious, but before she could reach him she tripped on a piece of broken mirror, and felt herself falling, falling...

Ulquiorra pulled his eye out of Orihime's chest, the action resulting in her slumping downwards onto the floor unconscious, a little blood dripping from her nose. He slotted the eye back into the socket, blinked, then stared at the heap on the ground for a moment, before being intruded on by a familiar voice.

"It looks like you went too far this time, number four." said Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, leaning on the doorframe.


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

**Welcome to the Jungle**

"And by using Ulquiorra's zero time technique, the girl has no chance of escaping despair."

"The despair she finds at the root of pure justice that is, Aizen-sama. She must understand that her death will benefit no one."

The brown-haired ex-shinigami looked at his subordinate, Tousen Kaname, and the corners of his lips curled subtly. "You read my mind."

The two inwardly smiled, basking in their mutual understanding.

"Don't I get a say in this, gent'lmen?" a silver-haired also ex-shinigami interjected. "I myself think it's rather cruel to set tha' moody espada on her. Now, someone like Luppi? She would'a started eating a-days ago." he sighed, "But that bull of yours blew him to pieces. I'm forever pained, y'know that?"

Aizen simply dismissed his colleague's comment, choosing rather to concentrate on the panel before him, set full of controls and levers, and a wall filled with screens.

"Gin-san, if you want another one, all you have to do is ask." the lucrative ex-captain finally said, casting Gin a devious sideways glance.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Orihime was back in her own room when she came to. Her blurred vision slowly came to a focus as she tried to blink away the pain she felt in her head and her chest. All memory regarding the previous incident was at a standdstill for now, which was just as well because she wasn't able to think about anything other than the pain for that moment. In addition, her stomach resounded the most vicious growl she'd ever heard; she was hungry.

"Hate to admit he's right but you should'a ate."

Grimmjow was sat atop the huge couch opposite Orihime, his arms crossed and his legs spread widely out in front of him; a dark, brooding expression on his face. He did not have his trademark smirk on, instead his lips turned upwards in a pensive frown, if you could even put 'pensive' in the same sentence as Grimmjow's name.

The orange-haired girl fully opened her eyes, and on realising there was somebody else in the room sat up abruptly, which was a mistake from the start. The pain shot up her chest directly into her head as a result, and she curled up into a ball on her bed in agony. She felt and looked weak, a sign that she had been malnutritioned for days now.

It was night time outside. The moon hung on the flat skies of Hueco Mundo like a taunt. Usually Orihime looked at the moon in times of distress. It consoled her to think that we were all under the same moon, and even moreso that her Kurosaki-kun was sleeping safely underneath it, but that was not the case here. This moon was apathetic and unrelenting, it was an angry, vengeful moon that spat down on everything that looked up at it.

Grimmjow walked over to her and stood still until she finally looked at him. They remained motionless for a few seconds before he grabbed her by the collar and pulled her out of bed and onto the ground, half onto her feet. He took her over to the couch again, but not before grabbing a vial from the table next to it. Before Inoue could comprehend the situation, not that she could even think straight thanks to the ache in her body, Grimmjow had already pulled her half along the floor and placed her firmly in front of him between his legs, her back to his chest. The next thing she knew, he had forced her mouth open and shoved the vial to her lips.

The liquid was sickly sweet and tasted like cough medicine, but the bitter aftertaste soon got rid of that notion. She half choked on the mixture, but while doing so she noticed that the pain was quickly residing from her chest. It was as though the pit of darkness present in her body was slowly shrinking into nothing, and dare she say it, it felt liberating. Inoue was able to open her eyes without it hurting now, but the room in its perpetual darkness made it difficult to make anything out clearly anyway. She regained her composure, her heart slowing to a regular beat, and she sighed, forgetting that she was cradled in the lap of the sexta espada.

"I could get used to this."

She jumped when Grimmjow shifted, moving her closer to him. It was a weird sensation, feeling the warmth of his body so close to her. She was bewildered for a moment as she assumed that all espada were cold-blooded, but it was increasingly difficult- and surprising- for her to believe that now that she knew otherwise.

Realising the situation she shivered. Orihime didn't like being in his presence, let alone so close to him. She broke away from the sexta espada, standing up with ease and fluidity this time.

"Why?" she asked, feeling that one word capable of easing the confusion she felt. "Why are you here? What did you just give me?"

The medicine of sorts had felt surprisingly refreshing, and in addition to the erasure of her pains was the disappearance of her hunger. What was this bewitching concoction that she'd just drank?

"Reiatsu." Grimmjow muttered nonchalantly, glaring up at Orihime, who according to him had just dented a rare moment of relaxation. He continued in slight irratation, "It's what the espada consume after training. It has the effects of an elixir. So for you, it's a freaking miracle, that's what it is."

-Orihime frowned at his condescending and unpleasant words, but only being able to do so for a couple of seconds, as the elixir sent another wave of restoration through her body, the effects visible on her face as her skin glowed a bright pink, instead of the sallow pale green of before.

"But, why... you? Where's Ulquiorra? He's in charge of me, not you."

Grimmjow's face darkened, and he rose from the couch, stepping into a strip of black that separated them; the shadow of the window frame. He emerged from it slowly, so that his eyes were visible foremost. He had a solemn expression on his face.

"You're hurting my feelings." he said calmly yet tauntingly, the fire inside burning viciously, Orihime's contempt being the fuel. "I didn't know you two were such good friends." And still he came closer, fully immersed in light now. "He didn't do a damn thing when you were crying out-- for your poor Kurosaki."

Inoue looked into his eyes, searching the blue for something that made sense, and then it hit her. She slapped her mouth with her hand as memories came rushing back into her mind from not moments before.

"You get the picture!" Grimmjow roared as he snatched her wrist up, which was held tightly across her chest. It didn't take him much strength to do this however; she was so weak.

Orihime stifled a sniff as a tear ran down her cheek and onto the spot where the '1' tattoo had been in her vision. It was somewhat of a relief, as it confirmed to her that her horrid ordeal had been an illusion, induced by Ulquiorra, whom she had underestimated until then. Another tear hit the same spot, and another Grimmjow's hand.

"Get your tears off me!" he growled, shaking her arm, but never letting go. "Your dirty human tears burn my skin."

"Then let go of me!" she cried, the image of a bloody Ichigo prominent in her mind.

It was at this that Grimmjow finally let go of her, infuriated for some reason she didn't know. Who had asked him to come here and insult her? It was as if he got a kick out of torturing people, and bad enough that he did it to the other espada, and Ichigo, who were all strong, but to bully a helpless person such as her, she couldn't comprehend it. And as far as she understood Ulquiorra was- by Aizen's word- her guardian, so the aggressive espada's appearance here made things much worse.

Yet, she couldn't help but feel a pressing sense of guilt. He had, after all, given her the reiatsu to drink. Without that she'd be paralysed with hunger by now. She watched him heading for the door, and in a fit of frantic impulse made after him, automonously pushing any hesitation aside. It was within her essence to do it, she couldn't let him leave without him acknowledging her gratitude, regardless of the circumstances.

She reached for his arm, the same arm that she had healed weeks before. The tears now stained her face, but they had dried and felt tight. However she had no time to regard this, for as soon as she touched him the espada shot her away in fury, having decided the whole association a waste of his time.

"Don't touch me, woman!" he snapped, without even turning around. "The next time you're about to die, I'm letting you! Two times I've saved you is far too many."

"I just want to say thank you!" she coughed after him, finding herself in a shockingly unexpected situation. Had she really just ran after him like that? She had just actually attempted to grab him? Half of her was disgusted at herself, but the other half was adamant to display her gratitude, for she wasn't an ignorant girl, and found it impossible to do anything but stay true to herself. A good deed was never forgotten, no matter who it was from.

Grimmjow was just about to leave through the door when he paused for a moment, and looked like he was going to turn around.

"Does it look like I care?"

That was all he said, and walked straight on.


End file.
